Executive Summary
Frequent or long episodes of hunger can have harmful and long term effects on the health and development of the child. Hunger, a consequence of extreme disadvantage, was experienced by 1.2% (206) of the families in the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth, which represents about 57,000 Canadian families with children. Single parent families, families on social assistance and Aboriginal families are over-represented. One third of the families, experiencing hunger are often dual wage-earner families, the working poor. Hunger was a problem that co-occurred with the mother's poor health and activity limitation. The difference in annual income between those who experience frequent hunger and those who experience occasional hunger is $5000.
Parents realize that food deprivation can affect the development of young children, and, therefore, deprive themselves of food first. Among households experiencing hunger, there is a high reliance on food banks in Ontario, and by single parents, while other families relied on support from family and friends.
The impact of the child tax benefit and the working wage supplement on the number of families experiencing hunger should be monitored. The level of social assistance should also be examined since over half the families experiencing hunger rely on this program. There is a relationship between the mother's health and the experience of hunger, but the direction of this relationship (which comes first) is not clear.
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